Account Manager, Grocery; East

About The Role

We're hiring an Account Manager, Grocery (East) to own and scale Grüns' Conventional Grocery business across key East Coast retail partners, including Kroger, Harris Teeter, Publix, and Wegmans. This role is critical as we deepen current partnerships, expand distribution, launch innovation, and strategically grow across the East grocery landscape.

You’ll serve as the dedicated business owner for these accounts—leading strategy, execution, performance, and relationships end-to-end. Grocery is a high-touch, high-complexity channel, and this role ensures strong cross-functional alignment, disciplined commercial management, and flawless execution across launches, promotions, and display programs.

Beyond maintaining the business, this role is responsible for building a scalable, profitable revenue engine—elevating buyer conversations from transactional updates to insight-driven growth strategies, identifying whitespace, expanding distribution, and creating retailer-specific playbooks that drive contribution margin and long-term partnership strength.

This role is part of our remote HQ. We operate in a fully remote, high-trust environment and gather quarterly for in-person off‑sites. Travel to retailer meetings and key events will be required as business needs dictate. This role also requires monthly travel to support key retail partners and business priorities.

• Own and manage the East Grocery business end-to-end, serving as the primary point of accountability for strategy, execution, P&L, and results.
• Lead buyer relationships across Kroger, Publix, Harris Teeter, and Wegmans—ensuring consistent communication, strong partnerships, and strategic alignment.
• Establish a consistent monthly business review cadence, delivering insight-driven sales updates and forward-looking growth plans to both internal leadership and merchant teams.
• Deliver flawless launches on‑time and in‑full, including merchandising strategy, promotional plans, marketing alignment, and operational readiness.
• Build and maintain a continuous pipeline of incremental opportunities, including void closures, distribution expansion, secondary placements, always‑on displays, and LTO programs.
• Own promo planning and post‑event analysis, identifying what works at each retailer and optimizing cadence, depth, and mechanics to maximize contribution margin.
• Develop retailer‑specific playbooks across displays, promo cadence, and innovation strategy to drive repeatable success.
• Manage broker and distributor relationships where applicable, while identifying opportunities to transition accounts to direct models when strategically beneficial.
• Partner cross‑functionally with Operations, CPFR, Finance, Marketing, and Data Analytics to ensure strong forecasting, OTIF execution, display compliance, and clean EDI setup.
• Identify and pursue new East Coast grocery partnerships aligned with long‑term contribution margin and strategic growth objectives.

• 5+ years of CPG sales experience, with at least 2 years calling on a major grocery retailer (Kroger experience strongly preferred).
• Demonstrated understanding of Grocery channel economics, merchant strategies, and vendor expectations.
• Proven experience expanding distribution, increasing door counts, and executing off‑shelf programs (features, endcaps, promos, displays).
• Strong financial acumen, including margin math and understanding of direct vs. distributor delivery models and impact to contribution margin.
• Highly analytical and skilled at synthesizing SPINS, panel data, and retailer data into compelling sell‑in stories and opportunity pipelines.
• Proficient in Excel/Google Sheets and PowerPoint/Slides, with the ability to build models, dashboards, and persuasive presentations.
• Experience managing brokers and understanding how to effectively leverage both broker‑supported and direct models.
• Successfully launched new items and managed innovation pipelines within complex grocery environments.

• Acts like an owner, not an account manager — fully accountable for P&L, relationships, and execution.
• Brings a strategic lens with hands‑on follow‑through,…